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Jean Grey
__TOC__ Real Name: Jean Grey-Summers Nicknames: Redd, Jeannie Former Aliases: Marvel Girl, Phoenix, Redd Dayspring Other Current Aliases: The White Phoenix Of the Crown Status Occupation: Adventurer, former student and fashion model, former member of X-Factor Legal Status: Deceased Identity: Secret Marital Status: Married Known Relatives: John Grey (father), Elaine Grey (mother), Sara (sister, deceased), Gailyn (niece), Joey (nephew), Scott Summers (Cyclops, husband), Christopher Summers (Corsair, father-in-law), Alexander Summers (Havok, brother-in-law), Philip and Deborah Summers (grandparents-in-law), Nathan Christopher Summers (Cable, stepson), Rachel Summers (Phoenix, daughter by Cyclops in an alternate timeline), Dark Mother (alleged relative) Group Affiliation: Founding member of the X-Men, former member of X-Factor Base of Operations: Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York Origin Jean Grey is a mutant, born with her special powers. Place of Birth: Annandale-on-Hudson, New York First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #1 (Sep 1963) History Jean Grey is the younger daughter of Professor John Grey of the History Department of Bard College in Annandale-on Hudson, New York, and his wife Elaine. When Jean was ten years old, she was playing with her best friend Annie Richardson when Annie was hit by an automobile. The emotion that Jean felt as she held her dying friend awakened her own latent telepathic powers, and she thus experienced Annie's own emotions as she died. This traumatic occurrence left Jean in a withdrawn and deeply depressed state. Moreover, Jean discovered that she could not control her newly awakened telepathic abilities, and had to isolate herself from other people to keep hold of her sanity. Finally, when Jean was eleven, a psychiatrist recommended to her parents that they consult a colleague of his, Professor Charles Xavier, who was secretly a mutant with telepathic abilities . Xavier explained to Jean, but not to her parents, that she was a mutant, and he treated her for several years. During this time he erected psychic shields in Jean's mind so that she would not be able to use her telepathic abilities until she had achieved the maturity necessary for dealing with them. Simultaneously, he taught her how to levitate and manipulate objects through psionic force. When Xavier judged that Jean had reached a certain level of mastery of her telekinetic power, he recommended to her parents that they enroll her in his newly established School for Gifted Youngsters. Unknown to Professor and Mrs. Grey, this school served as a cover for the X-Men, a team of young superhuman mutants being trained by Xavier to combat the threats posed by other mutants who used their powers against humanity. On entering the school, Jean Grey became the fifth member to join the X-Men and took the code name of Marvel Girl. The original five X-Men remained together for several years. Shortly after she joined the team, Grey and Scott Summers, the X-Man known as Cyclops, fell in love with each other. Although neither told the other his or her true feelings for him or her for quite some time, they finally openly admitted their love for each other. When Xavier realized that he had to remain in isolation for an extended period of time in order to make preparations to thwart an attempted invasion of Earth by the alien Z'nox, he released the psychic barriers preventing Grey from using her telepathic abilities. Grey's added maturity and her years of practice in using her telepathic powers enabled her to use her telepathic abilities from that point onwards. Hence, with Xavier otherwise occupied, she could use her own telepathic powers to aid the X-Men. Sometime later, after Xavier had recruited several new members for the X-Men, Grey and some of the other X-Men decided to leave the group in order to lead their own lives. Scott Summers, however, remained in the X-Men and he and Grey continued their romantic relationship. Shortly after she left the team, Grey and the then current members of the X-Men were kidnapped by Steven Lang's Sentinels and taken aboard Lang's space station. After defeating Lang the X-Men had to escape back to Earth aboard a space shuttle during a solar radiation storm. The craft's pilot had to sit in an area without enough shielding to protect him or her from the lethal radiation. Grey volunteered to pilot, but while guiding the shuttle to Earth, the solar radiation finally proved to be too great for Grey to hold back any longer with her powers. She began to succumb to the radiation's lethal effects. It was long believed that Grey had indeed died aboard the space shuttle but became linked with a primal energy force known as the "Phoenix Force" which recreated and reentered her body, The vastly more powerful being took the code name Phoenix. Phoenix joined the X-Men, but Grey had not had the proper training for coping with such immense power. At first Grey's strong moral sense kept the phoenix force under control, and usually subconsciously prevented her from using her powers beyond a certain limit. But then Phoenix fell victim to psychic manipulation by Mastermind, who was attempting to prove his worthiness to become a member of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club by mesmerizing Phoenix into becoming its new Black Queen. He psychically induced dark, repressed desires from within Grey's consciousness to come to the surface of Phoenix's mind, submerging Grey's true normal personality. Phoenix finally freed herself of Mastermind's control, but was unable to prevent the dark side of Grey's personality with the full power of the phoenix-force behind it, from overwhelming her, not having had the training necessary to repress it. Grey's true personality was submerged more fully than before, and Phoenix became the malevolent Dark Phoenix. After Dark Phoenix wreaked incredible devastation, Grey's true personality reasserted control of Phoenix once more, and, before Cyclops' horrified eyes, Phoenix committed suicide rather than revert to Dark Phoenix. Summers mourned Grey, and eventually married Madelyne Pryor, who greatly resembled her. It was later revealed that Grey did not die, nor had she ever become Phoenix. The force responded to Grey's anguish and telepathic calls for help as she was dying aboard the space shuttle, and appeared before her, shaping its form and consciousness after Grey's own. The phoenix-force told Grey that she was dying, but that by taking the phoenix-force's hands, Grey would gain her "heart's desire." What Grey most wanted was to save the lives of the X-Men and herself. She held onto the phoenix-force's arm and fell into a coma-like state. Simultaneously, the phoenix-force fully took on both the form and the memories and personality of Jean Grey. The phoenix-force used its powers to ensure the survival of the X-Men in their return to Earth and crash landing in Jamaica Bay off New York City. It was also responsible for casting Grey into a coma-like state and placing her within a cocoonlike construction, which rested for years at the bottom of Jamaica Bay while Grey's injuries healed completely. Thus the phoenix-force fulfilled its pledge to Grey. The phoenix-force creature compelled itself to believe it was indeed Grey, whose personality it had assumed. Indeed, it had imitated Grey's consciousness so perfectly that not even Xavier realized the imposture. It has been theorized that it was the phoenix-entity's own power rebelling against the duplicate of Grey's personality it had given itself that caused it to become Dark Phoenix. When Phoenix committed suicide, it was acting exactly as Grey herself would have done under the circumstances, since it had endowed itself with an exact copy of Grey's personality. Many months after Phoenix's death, the Avengers found Grey's pod beneath Jamaica Bay and brought it to the Fantastic Four for study. Grey released herself from the pod, at first unable to remember her encounter with the phoenix-force, but with the help of the Avengers and Fantastic Four, she recalled what had happened and learned what happened to Phoenix. As a result of her harrowing experiences, Grey had lost her telepathic powers, but the strength of her telekinetic powers had greatly increased. Grey was reunited with her fellow founding X-Men members, the Angel, Beast, Cyclops, and Iceman. She was greatly disturbed to learn of the current wave of anti-mutant sentiment in the country, Xavier's recent disappearance, and the fact that the then current X-Men were now working alongside Magneto, the original X-Men's greatest foe. Because the others agreed with Grey that they should do something about the current situation of mutants, the five friends founded a new organization to help other superhuman mutants, X-Factor. Jean's telepathy returned while battling the villainous Psynapse. Later, after Professor Xavier returned from a long sojourn in space with the Starjammers, Jean and the other members of X-Factor rejoined the X-Men. While Jean had been in suspended animation Scott had married Madelyne Pryor, a clone of Jean created by Mr. Sinister. Eventually Pryor went mad, developed vast powers, and became known as the Goblin Queen. The Goblin Queen died in combat with Jean. As a result of a psychic link, Jean acquired the memories of both Madelyne and the Phoenix's duplicate of her. Some years later, Scott finally married Jean. During their honeymoon, however, their spirits were transported two millennia into an alternate future and were placed in new bodies by the Askani cult. Their leader, Rachel Summers, the daughter of the Scott and Jean of an alternate reality, had also served in the X-Men under the name Phoenix. As Slym and Redd, Scott and Jean spent years in that future time, raising Nathan, the son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor, who had earlier been brought to the future. Eventually, Scott and Jean returned to their own time and bodies, leaving Nathan in the future to become the heroic warrior Cable. Since then she has had a stronger relationship with Cable, and he secretly learned that she was Redd when they fought the Phalanx on the astral plane. In Rachel's honor Jean adopted the name Phoenix when she returned to the X-Men. Jean was confronted by Onslaught, who claimed he could give her the power of the Phoenix once again and showed her Xavier's hidden memories, including an attraction for her. Juggernaut then confronted her, and the two went to the Z'Nox chamber to try and unlock Onslaught's identity with the chamber shielding them from detection. Her attempts to warn the other X-Men caused Onslaught to 'muzzle' her, and she returned to the Z'Nox chamber to deliver the infamous warning that Bishop saw in his future. During Zero Tolerance, Cyclops was implanted with a 'nano-bomb.' Jean strained herself considerably using her telekinesis to protect her husband long enough until surgery could be done to remove it. Needing time to recover, Scott and Jean temporarily retired to Alaska. While training, Jean began wearing a costume similar to the one the Phoenix entity wore and seemed to be manifesting the firebird effect with her telekinesis. While this worried Scott, Jean reassured him that she was well and simply training herself. At the dawn of the new millennium, the mutant warlord Apocalypse captured the Twelve: powerful mutants who would determine the fate of their kind, including Scott and Jean. They were wired to a machine that would channel their awesome energies into Apocalypse, allowing him to absorb the body of X-Man, a time-tossed teenager possessed of vast telepathic and telekinetic power, and ascend to a state of cosmic awareness. As his teammates fell around him, a powerless Scott shoved X-Man out of Apocalypse's draining circuit, merging with the would-be conqueror to create a new evil entity. Jean detected Scott's psyche inside Apocalypse and prevented the X-Men from destroying him. However, he was presumed dead by most of his teammates. Only Jean and the future-era freedom fighter called Cable refused to believe Scott had perished. Investigating rumors that he was alive, Jean and Cable found Cyclops struggling to reassert his mind over Apocalypse's psyche. With Jean's help, Cable exorcised the warlord and shattered his essence. Thanks to the support of his wife and adopted family, Scott was able to shake off the devastating effects of his merger with Apocalypse and rejoin the X-Men. In order to help her after the Psi-War, Jean and Psylocke switched powers. Jean lost her telekinesis but her telepathy increased greatly. After undergoing a 'secondary mtuation', her telekinesis returned as well. The Xavier Institute opened its doors to students once more, with Jean becoming Headmistress of the school for a short time. When the U-Men attacked the school, students aided Jean in repelling their attack while she once again manifested the Phoenix raptor. During Cassandra Nova's daring attack on the Shi'ar empire and subsequent assault on the Xavier Institute, Jean used Cerebra to splinter Charles Xavier's mind into every mutant on Earth. The trap worked as when Cassandra (in Xavier's body) activated Cerebro, Xavier reclaimed his body. The Phoenix Force started to appear as another personality within Jean, even having a conversation with Xavier on it's role in events to come. The rift formed between Jean and her husband after his posession by Apocalpyse was getting worse, and it began to be filled by Emma Frost; what started as therapy became a telepathic affair with Cyclops. Tipped off by the Stepford Cuckoos, Jean rampaged through Emma's mind. Immediately after, Emma was shot while in her organic diamong form by the cuckoo Esme and shattered all over the mansion's kitchen. Jean saw through the Cuckoos lies, and repaired Emma at the molecular level displaying incredible telekinetic power. After curing Emma, the X-Man Xorn was revelaed to be a traitor; and was now claiming to be Magneto. Tricked by a Magneto imposter, Jean and Wolverine ended up trapped on the remains of Asteroid M drifting closer to the Sun. Dying, Wolverine killed Jean and awoke the Phoenix within. Using her incredible powers, Phoenix returned with Logan to New York City to face "Magneto". Defeated, his last act was to give Jean a stroke on the planetary level. Dying in Scott's arms, she urged him to live. 150 years in the future, a Phoenix egg hatches and Jean is reborn once more. It's revealed that instead of rejoining the X-Men after Jean's death, a mourning Cyclops quit the team leaving a desperate Beast to pick up the pieces. Using the drug Kick, actually an aerosol form of Sublime, Beast is corrupted and sets a chain of events that leaves the world in ruin. Phoenix removes the Sublime entity from Beast, and goes back in time to avert the dark reality from occuring. As Scott stand over her grave, Jean pushed Cyclops to start a new life with Emma and to reopen the Xavier Institute. In recent months, the Phoenix Force returned to Earth in search of Jean, but was assaulted by a Shi'Ar warship and as a result, a great deal of its power was splintered across the galaxy. The Force arrives on Earth, discovers that Jean is dead, and proceeds to forcibly ressurect her. However, it goes terribly wrong, as neither Jean nor the Phoenix are fully prepared for the rebirth, and as a result, the Phoenix Force goes insane. The X-Men formulate a plan to contain the Phoenix, but the matter becomes complicated with the arrival of Quentin Quire, aka Kid Omega, who wants to use the Phoenix Force to ressurect Sophie, one of the Stepford Cuckoos, who died trying to stop him from from taking over the Xavier Institute. Further inflaming the situation are the crew of the Shi'ar warship who attacked the Phoenix while it was en route to Earth. Their plan is to destroy the Force while it is still weak and incomplete. Eventually the X-Men pursue Jean and the Phoenix to the North Pole where Wolverine attempts to kill her several times to no avail. After Jean manages to regain control and seals herself in ice, The Phoenix takes Cyclops captive and uses his optic blasts as a means of powering herself. The White Queen, in an attempt to subdue the Force, tells her Cyclops no longer loves Jean, therefore he no longer loves The Phoenix, either. But she offers herself as a host for the Phoenix, who accepts and Cyclops quickly traps them both in a Phoenix Egg containment unit created by the Beast. But then Quentin Quire arrives on the scene, intending to breach the unit and take the Phoenix for himself to bring Sophie back. Meanwhile within the Phoenix Egg, the White Queen is being consumed from within by the Phoenix's tremendous power. As she is not an 'Omega Level' mutant like Jean is, she is incapable of serving as its host for long. As Quentin breaches the Egg, he claims the Phoenix and uses its power to return Sophie to life, only to have her reject him and revert back to a lifeless corpse. This proves to be the final straw for the Force, who intends to destroy the planet, but then Jean emerges from the ice and battles her. The Phoenix is shocked that Jean was capable of such a feat without her power, to which Jean replies'‘I am you. Don’t you remember? Now get out of that stupid body!’ Jean forcibly seperates the Phoenix and the White Queen from each other, telling her she knows that the Force is confused, but that in the White Hot Room, when all their pieces are back together, she will understand. The two merge together, but the Phoenix's mental stability continues to deteriorate. Cyclops instructs the White Queen and the Stepford Cuckoos to telepathically link all the X-Men across the Earth together and connect them all to Jean and the Phoenix. The emotional support and love they feel from Jean's friends and family is more than enough to restore the Phoenix's sanity and this is further signified when Jean creates a new costume for herself--one of white and gold--and becomes the White Phoenix. However, as this happens, the Shi'ar warship creates an Event Horizon above the North Pole, which anihillates everyone there. But then Cyclops finds himself elsewhere with Jean before him as the White Phoenix. He tells her to find herself--her pieces, and that once she does so, she will know what to do. Jean asks to see his eyes before she leaves and he complies, bathing them both in his optic power. Jean bids him farewell and he finds himself and the other X-Men, alive and well on the ice. Jean had saved them all. But not before they had saved her. Now alive once again as the White Phoenix, Jean is returning to the White Hot Room to begin the task of finding the missing fragments of the Phoenix Force that still remain scattered through space. Characteristics Height: 5'6" Weight: 110 lbs Eyes: Green Hair: Red Unusual Features: No unusual features Powers Strength Level: Jean Grey possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. Known Powers: Jean Grey possesses telepathic powers enabling her to read minds, project her thoughts into the minds of others, initiate Astral Travel, and generate psionic force-blasts. She has not always had access to her Telepathy due to mental blocks. Jean also possesses Telekinesis. With it she can manipulate physical objects, generate force fields, fly, and stimulate heat molecules to generate concussive blasts. Her telekinesis returned after a secondary mutation. Jean's powers are magnified to near-infinite levels while she serves as an avatar for the Phoenix Force. She is able to manipulate matter and energy on a molecular scale, although this varies on the Force's status and how much power it chooses to allocate to her. Known Abilities: Jean excelled in astral combat. She maintained a psychic link to Cyclops. She posessed the memories of the Phoenix duplicate of her as well as those of Madelyne Pryor-Summers. Miscellaneous Equipment: No known equipment. Transportation: No known transportation. Weapons: No known weapons. Recommended Readings: *Uncanny X-Men #1 - First Appearance * X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga TPB * X-Men: From the Ashes TPB Notes * Jean's resemblance to Rose may have affected Wolverine's attraction to her. * Although against the X-Men's ideals, Jean Grey has killed enemies before: Prizm and MeMe. Related Articles * X-Men * X-Factor * Cyclops See Also * Character Gallery: Jean Grey * Quotes by Jean Grey External Links * References * Marvel Directory ---- Category:Characters Category:Living Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Good Characters Category:Secret Identity Category:X-Men members Category:X-Factor members Category:Mutant Characters Category:Red Hair Category:Green Eyes Category:Married Characters Category:Silver Age